Tech & Innovation in Healthcare

Implement adaptive pathways for customized learning.

Learn how the next generation of medical providers are using XR to build their skills.

Step Inside an Alternative Reality

XR is a technology that combines VR, AR, and MR. By blending the real world and digital elements, the user can enjoy unique interactions.

VR transports the user to a completely virtual environment when the user puts on a VR headset. The person is physically standing in a room, but their mind believes they are in a completely different world inside the VR headset.

AR superimposes digital elements over a real-time view of the user’s environment. This allows the user to remain aware of their real-world surroundings while enjoying the digital content. In 2020, neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins University used AR to perform spinal surgeries.

MR blends the real world and digitally-rendered graphics. When using MR, the user can interact with the digital and physical elements together through a single display. For example, surgeons can plan surgeries using the EchoPixel True 3D software. The MR technology generates a 3D model of the patient virtually, and the physicians can then work with different components to make a precise surgical plan.

While AR and MR technologies appear to be similar in definition, there is a distinction between the two. The technologies both overlay digital elements over a real-time view of the physical world, but MR allows the user to interact with both the digital and physical elements while AR only lets the user to interact with the digital on-screen elements.

Technology developers and healthcare professionals are exploring how XR can be utilized in several areas of healthcare, including teaching the next generation of providers and making surgical plans.

Safely Educate Healthcare Providers

Imagine this — you’re a surgeon and have a complicated procedure planned in a couple weeks. To prepare for the procedure, you put on an XR headset and step into the operating room (OR) virtually. All of your tools are available, and a digital rendering of your patient is on the operating table. You run through countless simulations to practice the procedure. Best of all, you can prepare for any complications and feel stressed without putting a real-life patient in harm’s way.

This is a practical application of using XR in healthcare. During the AMA’s “Applications of Extended Reality in Health Care” webinar, Frank Sculli, MSE, cofounder and CEO of BioDigital explained what BioDigital’s focus is with XR. “Our organization focuses primarily on education. We do student education, we do professional education, and recently a lot of great use cases in patient education have surfaced,” Sculli said.

The XR system allows students to perform several tasks while learning:

• Dissect a body to learn the anatomy like in a cadaver lab.
• Take apart body parts and make the pieces larger to see how the parts work.
• Label anatomy while examining the body.

The user can use controllers to navigate the space or just their hands since the XR system can recognize the user’s movements and translate them into the headset display. The user can also move windows in the virtual space to make a customized configuration that suits their needs. Plus, as the student learns, the instructor is in the virtual space with them, so the student can receive real-time feedback on the lesson or while performing a procedure.